Christensen: Porsche Needs to Go “All-In” to Win GTE-Pro Title

Porsche’s Michael Christensen said his team needs to go into this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship title-decider in Bahrain with an “all-in” mindset to beat rivals James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi to the GTE-Pro world championship.

Christensen and co-driver Kevin Estre enter the season finale at the Bahrain International Circuit 11 points down on Calado and Pier Guidi, who took class victory in the previous round at Fuji Speedway in September.

With increased points on offer this weekend due to the race length, the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 is still very much within striking distance for the title.

Christensen told Sportscar365 that Porsche needs to adopt a ‘full push’ mindset if the Danish-French duo is to secure their second GTE-Pro drivers’ title.

“That’s the start attitude, because we need to get this,” Christensen said.

“We can’t just sit and wait for whatever the others are doing. We need to go and put the pace [down], we need to go and get pole position [for the extra point].

“We need to be up there. If things then change in the race, we need to adapt of course, but the first initial mindset is that we have is to go all-in.”

Christensen added that while a class win isn’t an absolute must to claim the title, winning the race will put the No. 92 pairing in a predominant position in the battle for title glory.

“We don’t need to get a victory but it is the only way to control everything ourselves and we don’t rely on anyone else,” the Dane said.

“Basically, the easiest way to get it is go in and win. We always want to do that, but that is the mindset we want to have.

“We don’t want to be sitting around hoping to have some luck.”

Christensen added that Porsche will look to be aggressive in the early stages in an attempt to regain the upper hand but will then evaluate the situation and adapt its approach if necessary should the race call for it.

“If we have some pace advantage and track position advantage, then you have to assess the situation and don’t just go flat-out and full risk without having a second thought,” he explained.

“So if we are in a good position and we feel like we can handle it from where we are, then you definitely have to think of the situation a little bit differently.

“But initially, as I said, we want to control the situation and therefore we need to be aggressive, so if we are in that position to control, then we can reassess.”

While the decision in last year’s title scrap also came down to a direct fight between the No. 92 Porsche and No. 51 Ferrari, this year’s contest has one notable different factor with the presence of the lone Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

“They could be very annoying, but they could also be of help,” Christensen said of the Corvette. “In general, it is good to have a lot of competitors.

“I would have wished for more maybe, so there could be more of a gap between us.

“It is what is, but they could be very annoying. If they are, I hope it is for our benefit.”